{"id":459,"date":"2010-12-17T09:11:48","date_gmt":"2010-12-17T09:11:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thinplaces\/2010\/12\/why-the-incarnation-matters.html"},"modified":"2010-12-17T09:11:48","modified_gmt":"2010-12-17T09:11:48","slug":"why-the-incarnation-matters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/12\/why-the-incarnation-matters.html","title":{"rendered":"Why the Incarnation Matters"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I was invited to participate in a blogger roundtable at <a href=\"patheos.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Patheos<\/a>, and I was asked to answer the question, in 100-words or less: Why Does the Incarnation Matter? For those of you who are wondering, the incarnation is the idea that God took on flesh (incarnation comes from the root words in-carne, in the flesh) when he came to earth as Jesus. Christmas is a celebration of the Incarnation.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Here&#8217;s my response:&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span class=\"Apple-style-span\">&#8220;God is love.&#8221;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>When my mother-in-law was dying, she needed people to place ice chips in her mouth and rub lotion on her body. When my children were babies, they needed us to rock them to sleep and change their diapers. I prefer sentimental statements to dirty hands and tired limbs. Jesus may have preferred to stay away from this world of stables and carpentry and crucifixion. But the Incarnation shows me that God&#8217;s love isn&#8217;t abstract. It is as concrete as a baby in a manger, as a young man in a temple, as a rabbi on a cross.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span class=\"Apple-style-span\"><br \/><\/span><\/div>\n<div><span class=\"Apple-style-span\">To read more responses, click <a href=\"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/Resources\/Additional-Resources\/Why-the-Incarnation-Matters?offset=0&amp;max=1\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.&nbsp;<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I was invited to participate in a blogger roundtable at Patheos, and I was asked to answer the question, in 100-words or less: Why Does the Incarnation Matter? For those of you who are wondering, the incarnation is the idea that God took on flesh (incarnation comes from the root words in-carne, in the flesh)&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faith"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Why the Incarnation Matters - Thin Places<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/12\/why-the-incarnation-matters.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why the Incarnation Matters - Thin Places\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I was invited to participate in a blogger roundtable at Patheos, and I was asked to answer the question, in 100-words or less: Why Does the Incarnation Matter? For those of you who are wondering, the incarnation is the idea that God took on flesh (incarnation comes from the root words in-carne, in the flesh)&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/12\/why-the-incarnation-matters.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Thin Places\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-12-17T09:11:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"amyjuliabecker\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Why the Incarnation Matters - Thin Places","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/12\/why-the-incarnation-matters.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Why the Incarnation Matters - Thin Places","og_description":"I was invited to participate in a blogger roundtable at Patheos, and I was asked to answer the question, in 100-words or less: Why Does the Incarnation Matter? For those of you who are wondering, the incarnation is the idea that God took on flesh (incarnation comes from the root words in-carne, in the flesh)&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/12\/why-the-incarnation-matters.html","og_site_name":"Thin Places","article_published_time":"2010-12-17T09:11:48+00:00","author":"amyjuliabecker","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/12\/why-the-incarnation-matters.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/12\/why-the-incarnation-matters.html","name":"Why the Incarnation Matters - Thin Places","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#website"},"datePublished":"2010-12-17T09:11:48+00:00","dateModified":"2010-12-17T09:11:48+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#\/schema\/person\/4dde10eee38770361dc9b46a9413776b"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/12\/why-the-incarnation-matters.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/12\/why-the-incarnation-matters.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/12\/why-the-incarnation-matters.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Why the Incarnation Matters"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/","name":"Thin Places","description":"Amy Julia Becker on Faith, Family, and Disability","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#\/schema\/person\/4dde10eee38770361dc9b46a9413776b","name":"amyjuliabecker","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/222\/2222023dcae76abe6e896a3cf80e9836x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/222\/2222023dcae76abe6e896a3cf80e9836x96.jpg","caption":"amyjuliabecker"},"description":"Amy Julia Becker writes about theology, disability, family, and culture. Two major life experiences have shaped her writing and her faith\u00e2\u20ac\u201dcaring for her mother-in-law as she battled cancer and welcoming her daughter Penny into the world after she was diagnosed at birth with Down syndrome. Both experiences expanded and enriched her understanding of what it means to be human and to receive each and every person as a gift.\u00c2\u00a0 A graduate of Princeton University and Princeton Theological Seminary, she is the author of Penelope Ayers: A Memoir, and the forthcoming A Good and Perfect Gift (Bethany House). Her essays have appeared in First Things, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Christian Century, ChristianityToday.com, and Bloom, among other online venues.","sameAs":["http:\/\/amyjuliabecker.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/author\/amyjuliabecker"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/88"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}